Water Babes
We were water babes, born in the arms of a sparkling brook
That patiently took us into its heart. At the very start we
Were never far from its shingly banks, playing amid ranks
Of serried wildflowers. When one of us all but drowned
In a careless encounter the stream buoyed her up in a swirling embrace,
Enchanted by her smile, ingenuously placed a coronet of gold
On her touseled head and delivered a beatified child of the water.
All of us knew who had saved her. She wears the crown still,
The gold faded to russet in autumn decline, but her love
Is as pure as the divine water that gave her her life.
In the passage of time we grew out of the streamside
And flowed into a fractious world beyond the sheltered hills,
We learned of wars and catastrophes, torment and misery,
The dour pain of soured relationships; lessons which
Challenged our humble origins, questions unanswered.
One cannot deny a brook may breach its peaceful banks
And scour a flagrant path with awesome power,
Potential might belies the calm that flowers
In gentle times, and gentle times were all we knew.
But beside our brook the true conscience of peace
Had shaped our thoughts and romantic beliefs.
Related poetry:
- Going for Water The well was dry beside the door, And so we went with pail and can Across the fields behind the house To seek the brook if still it ran; Not loth to have excuse to go, Because the autumn eve was fair (Though chill), because the fields were ours, And by the brook our woods […]...
- The Water Nymphs They hide in the brook when I seek to draw nearer, Laughing amain when I feign to depart; Often I hear them, now faint and now clearer- Innocent bold or so sweetly discreet. Are they Nymphs of the Stream at their playing Or but the brook I mistook for a voice? Little care I; for, […]...
- Wine and Water Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale, He ate his egg with a ladle in a egg-cup big as a pail, And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and fish he took was Whale, But they all were small to the cellar he took when he set out […]...
- Under the Harvest Moon Under the harvest moon, When the soft silver Drips shimmering Over the garden nights, Death, the gray mocker, Comes and whispers to you As a beautiful friend Who remembers. Under the summer roses When the flagrant crimson Lurks in the dusk Of the wild red leaves, Love, with little hands, Comes and touches you With […]...
- 193. On Scaring some Water-Fowl in Lock Turit WHY, ye tenants of the lake, For me your wat’ry haunt forsake? Tell me, fellow-creatures, why At my presence thus you fly? Why disturb your social joys, Parent, filial, kindred ties?- Common friend to you and me, Yature’s gifts to all are free: Peaceful keep your dimpling wave, Busy feed, or wanton lave; Or, beneath […]...
- A Brook in the City The firm house lingers, though averse to square With the new city street it has to wear A number in. But what about the brook That held the house as in an elbow-crook? I ask as one who knew the brook, its strength And impulse, having dipped a finger length And made it leap my […]...
- The Water's Chant Seven years ago I went into The High Sierras stunned by the desire To die. For hours I stared into a clear Mountain stream that fell down Over speckled rocks, and then I Closed my eyes and prayed that when I opened them I would be gone And somewhere a purple and golden Thistle would […]...
- The Boiling Water A serious moment for the water is when it boils And though one usually regards it merely as a convenience To have the boiling water available for bath or table Occasionally there is someone Around who understands The importance of this moment for the water-maybe a saint, Maybe a poet, maybe a crazy man, or […]...
- Landing Under Water, I See Roots All the things we hide in water Hoping we won’t see them go- (forests growing under water Press against the ones we know)- And they might have gone on growing And they might now breathe above Everything I speak of sowing (everything I try to love)....
- Water If I were called in To construct a religion I should make use of water. Going to church Would entail a fording To dry, different clothes; My liturgy would employ Images of sousing, A furious devout drench, And I should raise in the east A glass of water Where any-angled light Would congregate endlessly....
- Water I was born in a drouth year. That summer My mother waited in the house, enclosed In the sun and the dry ceaseless wind, For the men to come back in the evenings, Bringing water from a distant spring. Veins of leaves ran dry, roots shrank. And all my life I have dreaded the return […]...
- To An Isle In The Water Shy one, shy one, Shy one of my heart, She moves in the firelight Pensively apart. She carries in the dishes, And lays them in a row. To an isle in the water With her would I go. With catries in the candles, And lights the curtained room, Shy in the doorway And shy in […]...
- Water and Gold You came to me as rain breaks on the desert When every flower springs to life at once, But joy is an illusion to the expert: The Bedouin has learned how not to want. You came to me as riches to a miser When all is gold, or so his heart believes, Until he dies […]...
- Water Music The words are a beautiful music. The words bounce like in water. Water music, Loud in the clearing Off the boats, Birds, leaves. They look for a place To sit and eat No meaning, No point....
- 185. The Humble Petition of Bruar Water MY lord, I know your noble ear Woe ne’er assails in vain; Embolden’d thus, I beg you’ll hear Your humble slave complain, How saucy Phoebus’ scorching beams, In flaming summer-pride, Dry-withering, waste my foamy streams, And drink my crystal tide. 1 The lightly-jumping, glowrin’ trouts, That thro’ my waters play, If, in their random, wanton […]...
- Well Water What a girl called “the dailiness of life” (Adding an errand to your errand. Saying, “Since you’re up. . .” Making you a means to A means to a means to) is well water Pumped from an old well at the bottom of the world. The pump you pump the water from is rusty And […]...
- Divine Epigrams: To our Lord, upon the Water Made Wine Thou water turn’st to wine, fair friend of life, Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of thy reign, Distills from thence the tears of wrath and strife, And so turns wine to water back again....
- Water Lilies If you have forgotten water lilies floating On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade, If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance, Then you can return and not be afraid. But if you remember, then turn away forever To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart, There you will […]...
- Water Lily My whole life is mine, but whoever says so Will deprive me, for it is infinite. The ripple of water, the shade of the sky Are mine; it is still the same, my life. No desire opens me: I am full, I never close myself with refusal- In the rythm of my daily soul I […]...
- 394. Song-Braw Lads o' Gala Water BRAW, braw lads on Yarrow-braes, They rove amang the blooming heather; But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws Can match the lads o’ Galla Water. But there is ane, a secret ane, Aboon them a’ I loe him better; And I’ll be his, and he’ll be mine, The bonie lad o’ Galla Water. Altho’ his daddie […]...
- 94. Here's his Health in Water ALTHO’ my back be at the wa’, And tho’ he be the fautor; Altho’ my back be at the wa’, Yet, here’s his health in water. O wae gae by his wanton sides, Sae brawlie’s he could flatter; Till for his sake I’m slighted sair, And dree the kintra clatter: But tho’ my back be […]...
- How To Paint A Water Lily To Paint a Water Lily A green level of lily leaves Roofs the pond’s chamber and paves The flies’ furious arena: study These, the two minds of this lady. First observe the air’s dragonfly That eats meat, that bullets by Or stands in space to take aim; Others as dangerous comb the hum Under the […]...
- Song of the Artesian Water Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought; But we’re sick of prayers and Providence we’re going to do without; With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below, We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go. Sinking down, deeper down, Oh, we’ll […]...
- The brook I looked in the brook and saw a face – Heigh-ho, but a child was I! There were rushes and willows in that place, And they clutched at the brook as the brook ran by; And the brook it ran its own sweet way, As a child doth run in heedless play, And as it […]...
- Hymn 158 Few saved; or, The almost Christian, the hypocrite, and apostate. Broad is the road that leads to death, And thousands walk together there; But wisdom shows a narrower path, With here and there a traveller. “Deny thyself, and take thy cross,” Is the Redeemer’s great command; Nature must count her gold but dross, If she […]...
- The Blue Water Buffalo One in 250 Cambodians, or 40,000 people, Have lost a limb to a landmine. -Newsfront, U. N. Development Programme Communications Office On both sides of the screaming highway, the world Is made of emerald silk-sumptuous bolts of it, Stitched by threads of water into cushions That shimmer and float on the Mekong’s munificent glut. In […]...
- Belonging We never really slept, Just buried clocks In the sanctuary Of night Every time I moved You moved with me, Winged eyelashes On your cheek returns a kiss Small spaces of silence In between borrowed breaths Arms tighten At the whisper of a name All the words of the heart The unanswered questions Are at […]...
- A Cruel Mistress We read of kings and gods that kindly took A pitcher fill’d with water from the brook ; But I have daily tender’d without thanks Rivers of tears that overflow their banks. A slaughter’d bull will appease angry Jove, A horse the Sun, a lamb the god of love, But she disdains the spotless sacrifice […]...
- Water, is taught by thirst Water, is taught by thirst. Land by the Oceans passed. Transport by throe Peace by its battles told Love, by Memorial Mold Birds, by the Snow....
- By the Grey Gulf-water Far to the Northward there lies a land, A wonderful land that the winds blow over, And none may fathom or understand The charm it holds for the restless rover; A great grey chaos a land half made, Where endless space is and no life stirreth; There the soul of a man will recoil afraid […]...
- I think that the Root of the Wind is Water I think that the Root of the Wind is Water It would not sound so deep Were it a Firmamental Product Airs no Oceans keep Mediterranean intonations To a Current’s Ear There is a maritime conviction In the Atmosphere...
- Water makes many Beds Water makes many Beds For those averse to sleep Its awful chamber open stands Its Curtains blandly sweep Abhorrent is the Rest In undulating Rooms Whose Amplitude no end invades Whose Axis never comes....
- TO THE WATER-NYMPHS DRINKING AT THEFOUNTAIN Reach with your whiter hands to me Some crystal of the spring; And I about the cup shall see Fresh lilies flourishing. Or else, sweet nymphs, do you but this To th’ glass your lips incline; And I shall see by that one kiss The water turn’d to wine....
- The Water-Fall 1 With what deep murmurs through time’s silent stealth 2 Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat’ry wealth 3 Here flowing fall, 4 And chide, and call, 5 As if his liquid, loose retinue stay’d 6 Ling’ring, and were of this steep place afraid; 7 The common pass 8 Where, clear as glass, 9 All must […]...
- Like The Water Like the water Of a deep stream, Love is always too much. We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst, We cannot have it all, Or want it all. In its abundance It survives our thirst. In the evening we come down to the shore To drink our fill, And sleep, While […]...
- When We Were Young As a child I played in the same frosty fields Barefoot as my no lesser loved classmates, Whom we challenged to show courage in the numbing cold, Then together we held our chilled fingers over the roaring stove That warmed our prefabricated, asbestos-sided classroom. There were differences then and we knew them, But shoes, or […]...
- Water It was a Maine lobster town- Each morning boatloads of hands Pushed off for granite Quarries on the islands, And left dozens of bleak White frame houses stuck Like oyster shells On a hill of rock, And below us, the sea lapped The raw little match-stick Mazes of a weir, Where the fish for bait […]...
- Dream Song 125: Bards freezing, naked, up to the neck in water Bards freezing, naked, up to the neck in water, Wholly in dark, time limited, different from Initiations now: The class in writing, clothed & dry & light, Unlimited time, till Poetry takes some, Nobody reads them though, No trumpets, no solemn instauration, no change; No commissions, ladies high in soulful praise (pal) none, Costumes as […]...
- The Sea said "Come" to the Brook The Sea said “Come” to the Brook The Brook said “Let me grow” The Sea said “Then you will be a Sea I want a Brook Come now”! The Sea said “Go” to the Sea The Sea said “I am he You cherished” “Learned Waters Wisdom is stale to Me”...
- Have you got a Brook in your little heart Have you got a Brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so And nobody knows, so still it flows, That any brook is there, And yet your little draught of life Is daily drunken there Why, look out for the little brook in […]...